I conducted my first "research" on the role of principals in the fall of 1984. My
superintendent was revising the principalsí job description and wanted to know what I
did all day. I had been on the job for just a year, and there were many days that I didnít
seem to accomplish much of anythingat least not anything concrete I could cross off a
list at the end of the day. I spent most of my time walking and talkingtalking with
teachers, wandering in and out of classrooms, meeting with parents in my office, and
chatting with students on the playground and in the cafeteria, but I wasnít sure these
activities sounded impressive enough for a job description.

I needed something more substantive and decided to ask the 364 students in Grades 1
through 6 what they thought I did all day. They took on the assignment with unexpected
enthusiasm and wrote short "essays" describing my job as the principal of Lincoln
School. Some eager beavers even illustrated their compositions.

There were many astute observers. A fifth grade student laid out this comprehensive job
description: "She must be able to talk and listen to children. She must be able to make
decisions that are good for the school. She has to learn to manage a school. She should
participate in all big school events. She has to have patience with children who are sent to
the office and she must deal with problems" (McEwan, 1985, p. 17). I forwarded it to the
superintendent immediately. I was amused by the many references to me having coffee
and "chit-chatting" with teachers. The students obviously did not understand that I was
consulting, mentoring, coaching, and facilitating!

What made me feel particularly good about the responses was that the students were
aware of me as an individual. They had perceptions of my involvement in the entire
building, and they also noted that my job was the fragmented, multifaceted one that more
sophisticated observers have noted (Wolcott, 1973). The students were also able to
articulate many of the characteristics needed by effective administratorspatience,
intelligence, and flexibility. They even had insights into the stress of being a career
woman, wife, and mother.

My fascination with what it takes to be an effective principal has not diminished in the
nearly twenty years since I did that simple exercise with my students. Now I have a more
global perspective, however. During my travels as a consultant, I listen to principals talk
about what is working in their schools. They are eager to share the news of rising test
scores, empowered teachers, and revitalized learning communities. I also work with
principals who are discouraged and frustrated by the demands of the job. As one principal
observed, "When I started in this business, my job was to manage the school and keep the
parents and teachers happy. Now, to be considered effective, I need to get results." What
kind of principal is able to get results with scarce resources, raise achievement and
maintain it while building a supportive and caring culture, nurture and mentor novice
teachers, energize experienced staff members, and simultaneously leap tall buildings in a
single bound? This question motivated me to examine the principalship once againthis
time, with the goal of defining the top ten traits of highly effective principals in the age of
accountability.

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

I have written Ten Traits of Highly Effective Principals: From Good to Great
Performance for the following audiences:

Principals at every level who want to notch up their personal effectiveness as well as
feel affirmed for what they are already doing well

Administrative teams who are engaged in study and reflection regarding the role of
the principal in improving school performance

Teams of teachers who participate in the screening and hiring of principals for their
schools

Educators who aspire to the principalship and are looking for outstanding role models

College and university educators who train principals

OVERVIEW OF THE CONTENTS

If you are wondering about the origin of the ten traits of highly effective principals, be
sure to read the Introduction. It describes in detail the multistep process that I used to
identify them. Following the Introduction, you will find ten easy to read and highly
inspiring chaptersone for each of the following traits:

Vignettes describing highly effective principalstrue stories from the trenches for
each of the ten traits

A set of behaviors and habits for each of the traitsbenchmarks, if you willto
guide and inspire you as you seek to increase your own effectiveness

Ideas, reflections, and advice regarding each of the traits in the words of more than
thirty highly effective principals

Pearls of wisdom, epigrams, and aphorisms from a wide variety of noted thinkers,
theorists, and philosophers regarding the ten traits

Reading the Ten Traits of Highly Effective Principals could be compared (if you use your
imagination) to attending a week-long seminar with numerous successful principals from
every level and kind of schoolmen and women from across the country who have
turned around low-performing schools, helped good schools become great, and raised the
standards of excellence in their highly successful schools even higher. At this imaginary
seminar, you will have the opportunity to hear keynote addresses as well as participate in
numerous small group sessions. You will also be able to ask questions and get honest
answers from individuals who have been there and done it with distinction and
excellence. There will be occasional drop-in visits from well-known experts and famous
people, but the highly effective principals are the stars of this book.

Although each principal whose voice is heard in the following chapters is unique, they do
share a number of traits in commonten, to be precise. Of course, reading about the ten
traits as demonstrated in the lives of these inspiring role models wonít provide you with a
ready-made roadmap to success. In fact, all of the contributing principals would tell you
that, as successful as they might seem, they are still works in progress. They see the
principalship as an ongoing journey, filled with detours and potholes as well as freeways
and straightaways. Although your destination is likely to be similar to theirs, the
roadblocks and construction zones that you encounter on your journey will be unique to
the school in which you work. However, an understanding of the traits, as seen in the
lives of these role models, will expand your thinking regarding the variety and quantity of
possible itineraries for your trip, enlarge your vision to include a far more expansive
horizon, and reveal multiple strategies for finding your way more effectively. My goal is
to enable you to pack your briefcase and set out immediately on your own personal
journey to becoming a highly effective principal.

When you have finished reading Chapters 1-10, you will find two additional features in
the Resource section that will make this book useful as a desk reference: (1) a checklist of
the nearly 100 benchmarks that define the ten traits and (2) a brand-new Corwin Press
feature making its debut in Ten Traits of Highly Effective Principalsa facilitatorís
guide. You can spot the guide very quickly because it is printed on shaded paper for your
convenience. The companion to this book, Ten Traits of Highly Effective Teachers
(McEwan, 2002), has been widely used in graduate classes, study groups, and
districtwide staff development courses. I hope that the addition of a facilitatorís guide to
this book will enhance the ease with which group leaders and teachers can plan their
activities and lessons.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the input of nearly 150 individuals
principals, teachers, central office administrators, school board members, university
professors, and parents. They took time from more pressing matters to communicate with
me via E-mail, snail mail, voice mail, and telephone interviews. I am most appreciative of
each of them.

My special thanks to Jack Lowe, Jr., the president of TD Industries in Dallas, TX. Jack is
a trustee on the Dallas Independent School District Board and a practitioner of the
servant-leadership approach to management, the philosophy which drives his companyís
success. His keen insights regarding the similarities and differences between business and
education, as well as his big-as-all-Texas sense of humor, would make him a wonderful
presenter for a principalsí conference.

I am indebted to my former superintendent, John E. Hennig, who gave me the
opportunity to become an elementary school principal. The principalship enabled me to
grow more as a professional and a person than any job before or since. I was compelled
to examine what was most important about schooling, my work, and my life. I faced
failure, discouragement, and tough moral choices as well as success, achievement, and
enormous satisfactionoften on the very same day. That is what I loved most about the
principalshipa new challenge every day.

I am profoundly grateful to my husband, E. Raymond Adkins. He is my copy editor,
encourager, and biggest cheerleader. Writing a book is a lengthy and often frustrating
processproposal, contract, research, writing, submission, copyediting, page proofs, and
finally publication. He has been there for every step of this bookproviding a sounding
board and a strong shoulder to lean on. His patience is unfailing, his honesty unrelenting,
and his common sense invaluable.